Parking Fees

Sh*t You May Have Missed While Looking for Free Parking


All the Vegasy news from last week…

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here with another serving of delicious Vegas news prior to the December mad house last minute holiday rush.

1. Vital Vegas has a pretty good preview of the public areas of the W Hotel at SLS, prior to the December opening, read here and view the gallery.

2. MGM Signature Towers were without power, and the Monorail was halted for a while over Thanksgiving weekend when a Semi-Truck wrecked in the Audrie/Harmon area and took out a transformer. Read LV Sun here. Nasty looking and fire and smoke directly on the tracks would not be a good thing. Glad it’s all checked out and working.

3. Excalibur’s Tournament of Kings has a new barn for horses and is starting their holiday show, read LVRJ here. I still haven’t seen this show since I saw the original Medieval Times show in Buena Park, CA back in 1990 (matter of fact after the show I drove to Phoenix, AZ for my 2nd date with my wife). Another item of note in the same article is the Bally’s show Solid Gold Soul has had a change of producers and is undergoing changes to the band and performers to keep the costs in line.

4. After the passing of Florence Henderson, it was nice to read Kats article on her history in Las Vegas, for some reason I just did not remember any of this, so it’s a great refresher for everyone. Read here. I remember her more for singing God Bless America at the Indy 500 outside of her Mrs. Brady role. She for sure could sing.

5. As you have read about on our site here, Caesars is going to start paid parking and valet except at the Rio (off strip enough to be free I suppose). However, this was fairly expected as they did this also with “resort fees.” However, if you really want to make MGM and Caesars pay there is an alternative besides staying at: Tropicana, TI, Casino Royale, Venetian/Palazzo, SLS, Wynn/Encore (oops scratch that…late breaking story below) and Circus Circus. Stay off-strip and use the plethora of free shuttle services to get to the strip and back. Read Vegas How To here. Either that or gamble enough at MGM (Pearl for free self-parking and I think Gold for free valet), or Caesars properties (Platinum earns you both free self and valet parking).

6. Oh noooooo….Palio Pronto is rumored by Robin to be closing up and converting to a wait for it…wait….a Starbucks. **Depressing drum roll playing taps here.** My wife and I love Palio, and we hate Starbucks so to Bellagio–we will find another gelato place thank you very much. Sugar Factory at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood has gelato, and it’s just a little further in from PBR Bar and Grill (fun after your team blows it and you need to leave early in the afternoon on a Sunday). Read Robin’s article here…it’s a little chunk of the first part of the article, but it’s important as I always saw people there. It was never without at least 2-3 people in line, and I see Robin kinda feels the same way. What next Bellagio, empty out the lake and put in multiple Walgreen’s and CVS stores a la TI?

7. The Paid Valet Parking epidemic is spreading, no Wynn is not going to charge for self-parking (yet), just Valet Parking, read here. At this property, the self-parking is not nearly the hike it is at other properties, so that is at least a good thing. Boyd also states it’s not going to start changing how they run the parking garages (at downtown properties they’ve had parking fees for a long while now).

8. Caesars is applying for withdrawal as a Public Utility Customer to go for an open market approach to energy; I suppose that Paris incident didn’t have anything to do with that now did it? Read LVRJ here.

9. Not sure how this is possible, nah…they just tighten everything up and wring the gamblers out of all the spare change. Nevada gaming went up 11% while visitation down in October, read LVRJ here.

10. Kats at LVRJ is reporting on Gordie Brown’s last show at the Golden Nugget here. Another churn of the LV Shows.

11. Reba and Brooks and Dunn are extending their run at the Caesars Palace Colosseum. Read Robin at LVRJ here. When they complete their 2017 dates, they will be the longest running country artists there (they will beat out Shania Twain next year).

12. EDGE Vegas has ranked Caesars properties rooms in Las Vegas here. Not sure I agree with Paris being that low, it can’t be below Bally’s, no way no how. But then again he’s basing Bally’s only on Jubilee rooms when that is only about 35% of the rooms in Bally’s.

13. Wynn is emailing out their Las Vegas holiday happenings, lucky for us it’s a web PDF so everyone can view the holiday displays and events at Wynn/Encore here. The Sinatra Birthday Dinner sounds interesting, but it’s Dec 12th, a Monday. Pretty cool, I’ve not seen that done before so some new marketing ploy to get people to pay for Valet Parking maybe?

14. LV Sun via Las Vegas Weekly has a pretty interesting article about the future of Industrial Drive read here. If you don’t know what that is, you might know it by several newer names. To the west of the I-15, it is Dean Martin Drive and acts as sort of a freeway frontage road until you get up to about Rio area and then it goes under the freeway and becomes Sammy Davis Jr. Drive. Then up to about Sahara where it converts back to the streets original name of Industrial Road and dead ends up just past W. Utah. I remember when it was just the shortcut to everything in the 80’s and 90’s before the resorts started to pave all the way back and build it out (Trump Hotel is just to the east of the road). You could get from Tropicana to Circus Circus in about 5-10 minutes depending on the lights. It’s still faster than Las Vegas Blvd but add another 5-10 now for all the new traffic lights for the parking garages out in back of the casinos. Yes, it was seedy at the time and still is in a way but seems to be more and more normal businesses are getting back there to catch the shift changes as the employees either go in or come out of work.

15. If you want to have a private party at TopGolf, try the UltraVIP experience at the Chairman’s Suite, it sounds cool and expensive, but hey it’s just money right? Read at LV Sun via Las Vegas Weekly here. I guess New Years will be booked already.

Topgolf Las Vegas

16. LV Sun via Las Vegas Weekly has the most recent Industry Weekly club calendar so you can find your favorite Oontz master, read here.

17. Wrangler National Final Rodeo is back at The Thomas and Mack Center (UNLV arena) you can catch details on dates and such here at LV Sun.

18. The rodeo came to town on Dec 1, there are quite a few country music events as well, read LV Sun here. Yes some of them have passed, but the article was middle of the week last week.

19. Fitch Ratings is giving Las Vegas a rating of slow and steady growth for 2017, read LV Sun via Vegas, Inc. here. It seems the baccarat table game is what throws the whole thing off. I still remember when it wasn’t legal in Las Vegas and not a table to be found in any casino. Beginning to see why now.

20. W Hotel at SLS has lit up and is open. Read LVRJ here, with a decent gallery of shots of the newly lit sign and the goings on as well as a crowded “Living Room.” That’s two openings in less than a month. Now….c’mon, someone buy Icahn’s blue elephant and get the construction equipment moving on Alon and Resorts World, please?

21. EATER Vegas has some tour goodies on some of the new restaurants at Lucky Dragon. Pearl Ocean is here, and Phoenix is here.

22. EATER Vegas is also reporting that Biscayne at Tropicana is closed for remodeling until Monday, Jan. 2nd. Read here. It seems the activity is starting to pick up there now that Penn Gaming is starting to get the plans rolling. In the mean time, ySou might try using the free M Resort shuttle and try the Anthony’s Prime Steakhouse down there instead…here is their menu. Or go across the pedestrian bridges to NewYork NewYork and hit up the Gallagher’s here, that one is our editor-in-chief’s favorite…dry aged beef goodness.

bigazmarty_symhm_1_1252016

23. In response to all the parking/valet fees per Vital Vegas here, Hooters Hotel and Casino is providing a Free Beer for parking if you have a parking receipt from the MGM paid parking (Caesars isn’t online just yet), or a car photo in their lot posted via a specific hashtag. Pretty funny, and not at all like the Stratosphere who while marketing that Resort Fees were bad were actually charging them and now charge hotel guests to go up the tower elevator. Nice for once that it’s not a bait and switch.

So that’s it for news last week, and now for our editor-in-chief Michael Movestro to cover our stuff.

Thanks, BigAzMarty! I for one hope Robin is wrong on the Palio Pronto thing! No trip for me is complete without Palio Pronto gelato while watching the fountains. It’s even in our About page.

 

Folks my apologies as this should have been up yesterday but I got back from Vegas later than expected and had to bang out the Conservatory Holiday show article. Plus, I’m playing catch up with my real-life job. Worth it though as my wife and I were in Vegas Wednesday through Sunday :) So much fun was had and there are many articles to come from that. But first…here’s the stories on Vegas Bright last week.

24. Blonde4ever goes out of her comfort zone: posing with Costumed Characters on Fremont.

25. I brought the news of Parking Fees at Caesars Entertainment strip properties starting in early 2017.

26. I wrote an article about enjoying some gelato at Amorino Las Vegas.

27. Me again on how Wynn Plaza flips the flop on the old Wynn Poker Room.

28 And, then me again (gees, I’ve been busy) with Pooling options and stall assignments for Uber and Lyft.

That’s it for last week’s Vegasy news!

[Photos: Greg Bennett, Angie Movestro]

5 thoughts on “Sh*t You May Have Missed While Looking for Free Parking

  1. That would be horrible about Palio Pronto!

    My parents stayed in the new rooms at Paris and really liked them. I agreed with him before now that the not redone base rooms were a very bad value, but I am reconsidering my opinion on that point

  2. Were the Resort rooms At Planet Hollywood remodeled too or just all the Hip rooms??? Prefer the size of the resort room & the double sinks in the bathroom, but the Ultra-hip much nicer if resorts rooms WEREN’T included. When article says “all rooms”, I would assume it meant all, but you know what happens when you “assume” something!!!! Thanks in advance for anyones answer.

    1. The article is incorrect. I have commented on the original article already, and I’ll be posting my own impressions on here soon with some updated information. All rooms at PH are scheduled to be renovated, but currently they are working their way from the top down. Rooms through 26 or 25 were done in mid-November, and they were working on 24 I believe.

      I agree with you about the Resort rooms. I almost always stay in them if I am not by myself on a trip, for the same reasons that you have mentioned.

      Here was our article earlier this year regarding the renovations at PH.

      https://www.vegasbright.com/2016/03/03/planet-hollywood-room-updates/

      1. I agree, the maintenance has been really good overall for the entire property. This year I did start seeing some areas in the hotel where it seemed that maintenance was being deferred. For example, elements that would have been replaced or touched up right away ordinarily will now sometimes linger for a while. I think this is simply due to the fact that they know they have renovations coming up in those areas. Overall however, they are still really well kept rooms. The Resort room I was given in November was particularly nice still!

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